Do You Know Your Religion?

Every time I meet a stranger I have to explain him/her that I am a Sikh but I don’t wear a turban. That doesn’t mean that I don’t respect my religion, perhaps I am just a moderate sikh who molded the fundamentals of the religion according to my comfort; to support my point sometimes I articulate “Its more important to be a sikh than to look like a sikh” But do I really know what a sikh is and what my religion is?

 “Were you taught your religion in schools?” One of my German colleagues asked me during a coffee table conversation.

“No” I said feeling proud of Indian secularism.

“Why?” He was amazed because in here Christianity is being taught in schools.

“Because India is a secular country and there are number of religions. So its better not to teach religion in a school than to burden students with lot many books about lot many religions” I tried to explain a bit, to him and to myself as even I was not sure about my explanation because I never thought about it.

“Then how do you get to know your religion” He was surprised on my answer and interrogated further.

“I inherited it from my parents and that’s it”

“Ya, that’s right but I mean to ask, do you know your religion? How can you say that, whatever you are following is correct?”

I was mum on that. Because I never tried to read about my own religion let aside the others, I never tried to read Guru Granth Sahib or other holy books so how can I compare or say which one is good?

In a while the conversation diverted from the topic and he went busy with another colleague, but I was stuck there till days. Same thing had happened few years back also, when I was in Seoul – one of my Muslim colleagues asked me “Why I follow Sikhism? Is it better than other religions? Have I read about Quran?” The way he asked me was not impressive; it was more like marketing Quran than to give me some insight into the word Religion, so I didn’t bother about it.

This time the question by this German guy hit the right cord. It made me think about my principles of life, my fundamentals, my ideologies. I know, I am in no position to tell anything about my religion as even I don’t know much, all I know is what I was told by my elders. I go to Gurudwara and bow to the Guru Granth Sahib, I visit temples and I bow to the idols even when the idol worship is prohibited in Sikhism (I do that for the respect of the other religion) and that’s it. That’s what I know about following a religion and most of us do only that, without giving a thought to what I am doing and why I am doing?

I believe in God. But the question here is not about the existence of GOD which many people confuse with; the question is why were these religions created? Obviously not by the GOD, but by the people. So, now it’s my job to know about what I am following and why I am following - But how?

I choose to read; presently I am reading ‘A History of the Sikhs by Khushwant Singh’. Will surely try to read and understand Guru Granth Sahib and other holy books in future and will try to implement their teachings to my life and that will be the day when I will be able to say “I know my religion and I know what I am following”

so kyon manda aakhiye jit jamme rajan

Guru Nanak Dev, founder of Sikh religion, believed men and women are equal and therefore women cannot be considered inferior. To woman we married, of woman are we born, of woman conceived, by woman is the civilization continued. It is by woman that the entire social order is maintained. Then so kyon manda aakhiye jit jamme rajan (why call her bad? From her Kings are born)

It seems present India has forgotten this teaching of their mystic Guru like other teachings by the other holy persons. The crime rate against women in India is alarmingly high, India is among the top rated unsafe countries for women, either count it by annual rape cases, dowry killings, home abuse or any other. And after that to cover up their faults the so called matured politicians make such stupid statements “90% rapes are consensual sex” “Women should be married early”. I want to ask Mr. Chautala, will it change the mind set of the rapists? Do the rapists check the marital status of the girl before doing such an inhuman act? The culprit here is the rapist not the girl, so if Mr. Chautala really want to make such statements then, should not he say “Men should be married early”? Or should not the police have made such a law that, men are not allowed to go out of home after 8O’clock in the evening, as they said few months back after Gurgaon debacle. Instead of chanting such dictates against the victim, they should amend their rules to nail the culprits.

I really can’t think – what’s the problem with such youth, and moreover what really is the mind set of these politicians? Does education is one of the reasons or the lack of implementation of strong laws against such crimes or the lack of girls because of female feticide or that Indian mentality which considers pre-marital sex a crime? The problem with India is that it is moving fast into 21^st century, but the male-mentality especially of the politicians and law makers still belongs to 20^th century. Our laws against such crimes are old, and the judiciary staff is even older. Our politicians are old (Avg. age of Indian Parliamentarians is 53 years, Mr. Prime Minister is 80+ and he is ruling the youngest country of the world), and their thinking is even older. We Indians need to change our thinking otherwise we will not be able to survive in the fast pacing world. It’s better to discuss some practical steps to alter the situation then to make such dictates.

Please for god sake amend the age old laws, make hard punishments for such crimes and moreover enforce those laws effectively, this is most important for Indian judiciary.  And our politicians and police need to be educated; they should be given moral lessons for good behavior and understanding the change. Those times are left far behind when the lady of the house was considered only for making chapatis and washing clothes; now they are going out in the world and you need to learn how to behave with these new age ladies. I think Indians are as afraid of the police men as they are from criminals, our police department needs to work on their reputation.

Not related to this topic, but still I want to mention it just for a change in Indian mentality - Stop considering love affairs and pre-marital sex as a taboo, its just a physical need and don’t forget India is the land of Kama-sutra, so what culture we are defending with stupid inhibitions? Presently the average age of marrying is going up, but the age of need or say urge for making love is getting lower, so we need to change with the changing times. But that also seems to be very difficult in a country where honour killings are so common; these people can’t understand love let aside need for sex.

This may also help a little – Legalize prostitution. Accept it or not, prostitution is there in every major city of our country; Don’t the police & politicians know about GB Road in Delhi, Infact Calcutta is one of the major cities for prostitution in Asia. Then why not legalize it? The people who are crazy about sex, they can go there and can satisfy their lust. It will make life easy for the prostitutes also; presently they are living on the mercy of police and mafia. So, legalization will give them a good safe and hygienic life and it will reduce rape cases as the human beasts will be able to get legal paid sex.

I know, It's easier said than done; but we have to at least start somewhere otherwise the time is not far when the Maa Durga or sheranwali will have to go somewhere else as even they will feel unsafe here in India, or they are already gone?

Will YoU ?

As usual I was on the jogging track along the Mainz River just to kill my free time. As I was walking, admiring the beautiful river along side and the sunset on the farther bank of the river, a family of four along with their pet dog crossed me. Just few steps ahead, the dog stopped to relieve himself from nature’s call. I was surprised, not on the dog’s shit but afterward the man pulled a poly-cover on his hand and collected the dog’s poo and delivered it into the nearby dustbin. Its strange for us Indians as even I will not feel comfortable doing that, so I can’t ask you - will you do that to keep our country clean?

I remember few years back, there was a news in some paper that Chandigarh administration (one of the best in India) was also thinking about charting a rule like that but now I don’t know why that didn’t materialize, may be those Indian inhibitions came in the way. I am not writing this for this dog’s shit but for the overall cleanliness of India, and I thought of writing this after watching Satyamev Jayate – Every Drop counts.

To all the foreign lands I have been, one thing was common – Cleanliness and their love for the nature preservation. I have no hesitation in claiming that we are the dirtiest people on planet. We have grown up being told how important it is to be clean, in the past it was mandatory to take bath before entering the kitchen. But that’s all where it ends, it ends within the four walls of our house; look around and you would know that we never understood the word cleanliness. Outside our house we assume the whole place to be a dustbin; and not only us, our government and all the administrations and industries treat our rivers as a waste dumping zone. Where on earth you will find the sewage lines converging into rivers without any treatment system; in which country you see the industrial waste running into their holy river or in which part of the world people poo in open?

The best places of the big cities I visited are their river banks – as it was in Seoul, Frankfurt, Paris, Zurich name any; infact these rivers enhance the beauty of the already beautiful cities. And look at our Indian rivers, Ganga the holy river seems to be a sewage drain except only in Rishikesh and Yamuna’s pathetic status within the capital city is known to everybody. Only few days back I watched Satyamev Jayate on Youtube and got to know that there is no Yamuna in Delhi, all its water has been diverted to two canals way-before entering Delhi and the river flowing through the capital city is hundred percent Industrial waste and sewage water. I couldn’t believe it at first, but that’s our India.

Its not only about water, we don’t even have a proper waste disposal systems. All our residential waste - plastics, food, electrical, glass we dispose off as one, which means there is no recycling. Everywhere in India you can see the ban on plastics (That’s another thing no where it’s implemented), but I will say why to ban it? It’s a useful thing, use it and then dispose it in proper manner. There is a huge dearth of waste management system in India, and a big lack of cleanliness friendly public.

Despite all the progress we seem to be making elsewhere, this is one area where things are getting bad with every passing day. Either blame the Government or civic administrations or your neighbors but, it is we, the people, who need to introspect. There is no dearth of ideas and suggestions, but now is the time for action whatever you can take at individual level or a group. Stand out and make a difference, let yourself be proud of you.

It's impossible not to love PARIS

‘Beware of the pickpockets’ ‘Metro Trains are too crowded’ ‘You will have to be in queue for hours to get to the top of Eiffel Tower’ ‘French people are arrogant’ These were the words which my friends and colleagues shared with me, when I told them that I am planning a trip to Paris. But yes, they have already been there & so will I.

Before even going to Paris I started hating that city a bit, believe me I even thought to cancel my bookings. And that feeling of ‘Not-liking’ was strengthened by the ‘not so polite’ first French guy I talked to on the French soil at metro station information centre. As I moved towards my Metro-Train the litter around and sleeping beggars in the narrow alleys of metro station braced that bad Paris image further and believe me Delhi metro is the best among all I have traveled till now. Then that first look of Eiffel Tower from the Trocadero square was like ‘what is so special in this humongous telephone tower look-alike metallic structure?’

That feeling of not-liking Paris ends here. Once you spend time on and around Eiffel, you fall in love with it. The marvelous piece of engineering and that too built 200 years ago will engulf you in its charismatic beauty. The beautiful arcs of the base and then the mesmerizing view of the Paris city from the top of it is just mind blowing, at last you will end up admiring its exquisiteness for hours. The best part is- we reached Eiffel early morning, so it saved us from long queues. Even after spending long hours there, it was difficult to leave and move on to our next destination. In the afternoon we had some rest in our cozy ibis Hotel and then moved out to explore other popular places.

We saw some of the places we had read or heard about and discovered that all those were even more beautiful, much more exciting than I had ever thought. I am not an admirer of art or poetry or architecture, but that’s the beauty of Paris – you will fall in love with everything it gives you, whether its paintings & sculptures of Louvre or Picasso museum, architectures of centuries old churches or just the pigeons around (they are so friendly). If you love just to drift around like me then Paris is the best city in the world for a drifter. You go to any road or small gully it has its own charm. Don’t miss a coffee break on any roadside café, you will just love to sit and see the people going around.

 At night the city spells even more. You will admire every place you see during the day and I bet you will be awestruck seeing the same place in lights, be it Eiffel or any other structure. The markets live up to their romantic reputation; group of youngsters singing and dancing at every corner, romantic couples spilling all their emotions in open and long slender legs of beautiful fashion conscious French girls will always ask for more approbation.

Two days are too short for a city like Paris, you need at least a week if you want to see Paris; and if you fancy knowing Paris then I wonder even a life time is not enough.

Operation Blue Star - Whom to Blame?

Who was responsible for this bloody battle Hindus, Sikhs, Politics, Fundamentalism or as the Government said, some foreign hand - Pakistan, China? Everyone you ask has his/her own reasons for biasing, you never know whom to believe or whom to not; who is lying or who is saying truth

According to govt.’s version the casualties in Operation Blue Star were - 83 troops, 493 Civilians/Terrorist; where in actual the figure goes well beyond 2000 which majorly include innocent civilians. I wonder why always such a blunder exists in government records. So, who is responsible for all the killings? The only way to know the truth is to read about those times as much as one can and then use his/her common sense to drive some conclusion. I may be wrong, I may be right but I tried to read and think as rational as I could, without any biasing:

Congress Party (Indira Gandhi/ Sanjay Gandhi/ Giani Zail Singh) - It is very enticing simply to blame Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his brand of Sikh fundamentalism, which may seem to be very harsh judgment, because fundamentalism does not exist in vacuum. Indira Gandhi was responsible for creating a political atmosphere which made the fundamentalism of Bhindranwale relevant.

June 1 to 6, 1984. The Indian army invaded Harimandir Sahib Complex on the orders of the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. But the catastrophe had its origin well before that in the Punjab’s political environment. After the defeat of Congress party in 1977 elections in Punjab, Giani Zail Singh then president of India and a trustworthy close friend of the Prime Minister, along with Sanjay Gandhi (Elder son of the Prime Minister) was given the responsibility to uplift congress party in Punjab.

In contrast to the general belief that Bhindranwale is an Akali Dal man, he was all from the Congress party. It was Indira Gandhi’s Congress party which launched Bhindranwale to counter Akali Dal trinity. Bhindranwale even supported and campaigned for the congress candidates in 1980 general elections in Amritsar constituency. It was Indira Gandhi’s government which allowed him to usurp its role in Punjab in-spite of all the terrorism and killings he was involved in. Bhindranwale had got the full support of the central government and the home ministry. “Indira Gandhi created a monster she could not control”

It is believed that, burning of Bhindranwale’s sermons by the police while they attempted to arrest him in Chando Kalan (Haryana) turned him against his political godfather, Zail Singh and Indira Gandhi. But Giani Zail Singh continued thinking that he can use him for their political instincts against Akali Dal and his congress alley Darbara Singh (Then chief minister of Punjab and a rival of Giani Zail Singh). So up till the end he was in full support of Bhindranwale, he was in direct contact with Bhindranwale till his last day.

Even if Indira Gandhi had arrested Bhindranwale after assassination of Jagat Narain or DIG of Police Mr. Atwal or many other high profile citizens whose killings are instigated by Bhindranwale’s men there would have been no assault on the Akal Takht. Even if Indira Gandhi had acted when she first got reports that Bhindranwale was fortifying the Golden Temple complex, it would still not have been too late. But she didn’t as she wanted to use him for her petty political gains against the Akali Dal or as some people say against the Sikh psyche. Indira Gandhi’s wrong political tactics & indecisiveness is the main reason for all the blood shed. She acted too late and too much.

A situation which could have been resolved without a shot being fired was allowed to deteriorate to the point where the sanctity of a place of worship was dishonored in the most brutal way with death and destruction.

Akali Dal - The Akali Dal trinity must also bear their share of the responsibility. Sikh leadership was as much responsible as the government for the disaster. It was the Akali Dal leaders surrender to Bhindranwale which dragged the situation off-limit. Badal and Longowal lacked the courage to stand out against a force they knew was evil and Tohra tried to use it for his own ambitions of being the chief minister of the state. Sikhs and their leaders should have been the firsts to through Bhindranwale out when he occupied the highest seat of Sikh authority ‘The Akal Takht’, but they didn’t.

Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala – Indian govt. was responsible for the disaster and was responsible to let the situation come to that criticality that they had to involve army in the battle against their own people. But the culprit behind the army invasion into the Harimandir Sahib and the destruction of the holly Akal Takht is Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala.

Will talk about his fundamentalism little later, first question is why at all he moved into the Akal Takht, he was the only person other than Guru Hargobind Singh, and his family, to reside in the Akal Takht. If he really was genuine enough then he should have stayed out of Harimandir Sahib and should have dealt with the government and army from outside only. But in actual he was a coward, and feared from the Government and the Police, that’s why twice he hide himself in Gurdwaras to save himself from the arrest and at-last take the sanctuary of Akal Takht, when he find no else place safe to be alive. Then he fortified the historic Takhat, with rifles, assault weapons & grenades which is never good for any religious place. He had been criticized for this act at that time as well, but the politicos and the persons (majorly Congressmen) who wanted to raise the conflict were in his favor and even backed him in his decision.

Bank robberies, money extortion and murders not only of the Hindus as the paid media elevated but also of the Sikhs who genuinely opposed him. He was not serving any religion but himself; he was not killing the enemies of Sikhism but his personal enemies. By 1983 more than 500 people had been murdered throughout the Punjab by armed brigades of young motor cycle driving terrorists. It’s not that, the government didn’t know about Bhindranwale’s movements but they deliberately didn’t try to stop him and what happened because of that is all history.

Indian Army – Using army against a person who fortified a holly place is not at all wrong but it was particularly unwise of the Indian army to surround Guru Arjun Dev’s Golden Temple on the anniversary of his martyrdom. The Golden Temple and the surrounding guest houses were filled with 3000 or more pilgrims, guests and employees of the complex. Many had come to visit the Temple on the Martyrdom day of Guru Arjun Dev.

At first this Operation was not at all needed as until June 1 1984, Bhindranwale held his regular public meetings on the roof of the Langar hall. The meetings were open to all, and it should have been possible for a group of commandos to nab him there by using minimal force. This was not done. It should also have been easy for specially trained sharp-shooters, who had positioned themselves on the buildings around the temple, to target Bhindranwale and his armed followers, and to "neutralize" them. On June 1 afternoon, mixed groups of various security agencies that had occupied the multi-storied buildings in the circumference did open fire against the temple complex when Bhindranwale was holding his audience on the roof of the Langar hall. Instead of targeting Bhindranwale, the shooters aimed at various buildings, including the main shrine of Harimandir Sahib which received 34 bullet marks.

If we consider that the operation was necessary and there was no way-out then also, Indian and foreign military experts believe that the plan as well as the intelligence was at fault. The Army commanders had thought that the size and might of the forces employed to route the Takht's occupiers would convince the Singhs to surrender, but they forget the long tradition of the Sikhs to fight and get martyrdom. There was a total lack of intelligence, that too when the military knew that the commander of the Bhindranwale army is their own army man Major Shahbeg Singh. They could have get the proper layout and gun placements of the Bhindranwale before the operation if they wanted too, but don’t know why, but it seems that all the operation was done in a hurry and without any planning.

The least creditable part of the operation blue star is to evacuate hostel complex in the middle of the operation and because of that hundreds of innocent people died and almost all by army firing, Which Major Brar (Operation Commander) denied in all his interviews but the eyewitness accounts tells a different story of mishandling of innocent people even women and children by the army personnel.

Major Brar said that enormous calls were made to ask the innocent people to come out but every eyewitness had denied these claims. Major even told the press that only one tank had been driven on to the parikrama, and that it had only fired its secondary armament, a 7.62mm machine gun, but the real story is far different and Bhindranwale was blasted out of the Takht with 105mm main armament of Indian Vijayanta tanks and the damage to Akal Takht tells it all. To make matter worse, Indian army simultaneously attacked 74 other Gurdwaras all over Punjab which can be handled without fire power but the army didn’t try that. 257 persons were shot down during the storming of the Dukhniwaran Gurdwara in my home town Patiala. 

Other then above mentioned, there are many more people who were also to be blamed for the blood shed; then Chief Minister of Punjab Darbara Singh, Chief Minister of Haryana Bhajan Lal and many courtiers of Indira Gandhi’s Darbar tried their best to fuel the fire.

And the attack on Golden temple only alleviated the secessionist movement and overnight Bhindranwale became a folk hero. It is a known fact that more people died after this attack in next two years then from 1977-1984 while the attack on golden temple was to curb the "secessionist movement". It was obvious that sooner or later Indira Gandhi will have to suffer for this destruction. In November of same year, two Sikhs of Delhi police killed her at her residence. Then riots against Sikhs followed in Delhi, Kanpur, and other cities in all over India in which more then 15,000 Sikhs were murdered in broad daylight by the supporters of Indira Gandhi while police meekly watched.

But that’s for sure; Operation Blue Star was not a battle against the Sikhs, it was a battle in which infantry and artillery were used against a small group of Sikhs who had fortified the golden temple complex. The tragedy is that many Sikhs do not accept this.

And it’s even surer, that holocaust of innocent Sikhs in Delhi after Mrs. Gandhi’s assassination was deliberately planned and the government machinery and police was actively involved in it. The tragedy is that the so called democratic government does not accept this bitter truth and the justice is still pending.

References:

Amritsar – Indira Gandhi’s last battle (Mark Tully & Satish Jacobs)

Operation Blue Star (K S Brar)

A History of the Sikhs (Khushwant Singh)

India the siege with-in (MJ AKBAR)

Bhindranwale- myth and reality (Chand Joshi)

Plenty of eyewitness accounts on Wikipedia, Sikhiwiki and YouTube.

e-kabootar

We were in Sector 31 Market for some evening snacks. I parked my car and was waiting for Neiha who was busy in shifting her stuff underneath front seats to keep it away from the onlookers’ vision (She is so conscious about all this after her car was stolen a year back). Anyway, I was looking around when my hallucination was controlled by a big Text board on one of the road side electric poles.

Amazing, isn’t it? After a moment we both were reading and laughing at it. We moved to OM sweets, and our talks were all concentrated on this board only. I don’t know why but this proposal style took me twenty years back to Sooraj Barjatya’s ‘Maine Pyaar Kiya’; remember that song “Kabootar Ja Ja Ja”? Those were the times when people used that sweet little bird for their ‘pyaar ka izhaar’; some love-fanatics even used their blood on that tiny piece of paper to show off their madness. I think that mode of conveying love through paper sheets or cards had the longest life span.

Then came the audacious way of proposing, face to face. Some times it ends on a happy note and some times with a five finger mark on the cheek. All these forms of conveying love messages are still alive (hoping that kabootars are still used as post masters in some hidden part of the world). But most of the present day aashiqs took a more convenient e-path. In todays tech-savvy time when everything from shopping to real estate to matrimony to jobs is available on internet; why should our love birds be remain intact to the old love letter styles.  Now a days thousands of love stories starts daily through e-kabootars like G-talk, Yahoo-messenger, Facebook. Why to go far, even my own love story started from Orkut and you know the results; so this method is also successful ;)

But still in this fast paced e-world, I believe ‘out of the box’ proposals like the one I mentioned above have high rate of success; that’s another thing that they require lot of time and efforts, but I think your ‘love of the life’ deserves that much.

So guys keep inventing and keep the spirit of love alive.

GOD does not have a FaceBook account

I have enough free time or you can say I am a FaceBook addict (but I am not), so I login to FB multiple times a day. And every time I login, I see a God’s photo or a religious update on one or other friend’s profile; presently the Hindu-Muslim riots photographs in Assam & Mumbai are the prominent ones (I am sure most of them are morphed). On seeing so many religious updates sometimes I worry if GOD has a FaceBook account; Ya, that can be the only reason everyone is eager to show their love for the God (infact religion) in here.

This reminds me of a story about an innocent child’s faith on GOD, which I read during my school times. A child writes a letter to GOD, requesting him for Rs.100. He didn’t know God’s address, so he posted it with a title ‘TO GOD’ without any address on the envelope. The post officer checked the letter while collecting it from the post box, and he didn’t want to break little child’s faith on GOD so, he replied him back with Rs.50 note in it. On receiving the money, the child was very happy and he replied GOD with a thanks letter and writes a complaint also “I am sure you must have sent Rs.100 for me, but these corrupt Post Office Employees steal half my money and I just received 50Rs. Next time please send me the money through courier only”

I am not sure if the people on FB are that innocent or stupid. I used this word stupid because today I saw a picture on FB with a stupid comment; seriously a stupid one, so I could not stop myself from mentioning it here. Someone please tell these people that, if your prayers could be answered by just sharing a photo then there wouldn’t be so many sadhu’s out there looking for solitude in Himalayas and places like Banaras, Varanasi & during Kumbh melas; that’s another thing that even they didn’t get a glimpse of the GOD.

I am not denying it; earlier I also used to like those religious photographs or share it. But now, enough of it; I am not that free to share or like a thing on your request or order. Some times I wonder, how the world would have been without religion? I don’t know about the world but FB would definitely have been clean and less clumsy. Of course Mark Zuckerberg’s earnings would certainly be reduced as most of the Indian traffic on the site is because of these updates only. Some times I doubt that it might be a tactic used by FB Co. itself to increase the traffic on their site.

Whatever it is, but that’s for sure we people have totally lost the basic fundamentals of Religion and GOD. All that we care about now is to prove our religion better than the other; all that we want now is larger number of shares of our GOD’s photo than that of other religion. There are so many pages on all the networking sites explaining the falsehood and wrong practices of other religions. Why don’t we just mind our own business, infact I should say our own Religion. Why we are always poking nose in other’s Religions. And mind it; Religion is a personal thing; your devotion to GOD or anybody else is your personal matter, so keep it up to you.  Don’t display your affections publically; if you are so eager to do that go to some temple or join some NGO and help the needy ones, display your love for the humanity, don’t just waste your time and others on FaceBook, GOD does not have any FB account to check your updates.